Two inspiring rewilding initiatives based in Poland and Slovakia have joined Rewilding Europe’s European Rewilding Network. Their addition will strengthen the network in Central Europe and create new opportunities to amplify nature recovery through collaboration, shared learning, and practical action.
From climate change mitigation to biodiversity enhancement, peatland rewilding offers a wide range of benefits. We caught up with Peter Torkler, Rewilding Oder Delta team leader (Poland), to discuss peatland restoration on the Polish side of the Oder Delta.
A new rewilding centre has opened on the German side of the Oder Delta rewilding landscape. As nature continues to recover in the area, the multi-functional building will help to build engagement, develop nature-based tourism, and ultimately enhance rewilding impact.
The aim of the recently established European Wildlife Comeback Fund is to scale up wildlife reintroduction and population reinforcement across Europe. The fund’s first grant has just enabled the release of two juvenile Eurasian lynx in Western Pomerania, enhancing the genetic diversity of the area’s existing lynx population.
Restoration work carried out on the Ina and Gowienica rivers (and their tributaries) is part of the Oder Delta rewilding programme, and will hopefully boost fish migration and populations in the area.
This year’s third European Rewilding Network webinar saw 17 participants from seven European countries discuss the return of European rivers to their natural, free-flowing state.
The plan, which involved constructing dykes around the Middle Oder wetland in Poland, would have had a catastrophic impact on biodiversity and negatively impacted the work of Rewilding Europe and its partners. The rest of Poland’s inland waterways programme will hopefully now be abandoned.
Teams exchange insight and experience, while Polish history of bison reintroduction bodes well for the Romanian rewilding programme.
A keen advocate of rewilding, Tim Kasoar is a fourth year PhD student at Cambridge University in the UK. A particular interest in restoring wetland and floodplain habitats and natural flood dynamics took him to the Oder Delta rewilding area, where he witnessed firsthand the beneficial impact of river restoration on local biodiversity.
Rewilding Europe is delighted to welcome three new members (from Scotland, Spain and Poland) to the European Rewilding Network. Displaying impressive growth since its launch at WILD10 in Salamanca in October 2013, the network now comprises 57 members from 25 European countries (including Rewilding Europe’s eight operational areas).
